Method and apparatus for quality assurance in a multimedia communications environment

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method and system for monitoring and evaluating multimedia telephonic and computer-communication interactions. The multimedia quality monitoring system may include an event manager, which may receive a notification associated with a communication between an agent and a customer and recording servers, which record data associated with the communication.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] Quality monitoring systems are increasingly being used at contactcenters to monitor the effectiveness of the interactions of agents withcustomers. Existing quality monitoring systems are mainly directed totelephone call centers; however, they provide only a partial solution toquality assurance (QA) in multimedia contact centers.

[0002] Advanced telephone call monitoring systems enable the recordingof an audio portion of the telephone call while synchronously recordingat least a portion of the agent's interactions with a computer duringthe telephone call. The monitoring system receives notificationsregarding the start and end of the call from a single server. It may bean automatic call distribution (ACD) server or a computer telephonyintegration (CTI) server. Such a system is described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/503,479, filed Feb. 14, 2000 and assigned to thecommon assignee of the present application.

[0003] However, multimedia contact centers may require differentsolutions. In order to allow a supervisor to make a full QA assessmentof an agent, the multimedia monitoring system may receive data fromadditional servers that handle the e-mail, chat or web collaboration Thesupervisor may be interested in reviewing, for example, both the e-mailtext and the screen capture during answering in order to evaluate theway the agent uses his computer.

[0004] Accordingly, existing QA monitoring systems may not providesatisfactory solutions for QA in multimedia contact centers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of thespecification. The invention, however, both as to organization andmethod of operation, together with objects, features and advantagesthereof, may best be understood by reference to the following detaileddescription when read with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0006]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustration of a contact center havinga multimedia QA system according to some embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0007]FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustration of the multimedia QA systemof FIG. 1 according to some embodiments of the present invention;

[0008]FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the multimediaQA system of FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0009]FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the multimediaQA system of FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0010]FIG. 5 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the multimediaQA system of FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0011]FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the multimediaQA system of FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention; and

[0012]FIG. 7 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the multimediaQA system of FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention.

[0013] It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity ofillustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements maybe exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, whereconsidered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among thefigures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0014] In the following detailed description, numerous specific detailsare set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of theinvention. However it will be understood by those of ordinary skill inthe art that the present invention may be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures,components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not toobscure the present invention.

[0015] Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a simplified blockdiagram illustration of a multimedia contact center 10 having amultimedia QA system 20 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention. Contact center 10 may comprise a plurality of contact servers12 coupled to QA system 20 and to either an external telephonic network14 or an external IP network 16.

[0016] An example of a contact server may be a voice automatic calldistribution (ACD) server 12A, which is a telephony switch capable ofmanaging the automatic distribution of incoming calls received vianetwork 14. Another example of a contact server may be an e-mailmanagement system (EMS) server 12B, which is capable of managing theautomatic distribution of incoming e-mails received via network 16.Additional non-limiting examples of a contact server may be a chat ACDserver 12C capable of managing the distribution of chat sessionsreceived via network 16, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIp) ACDserver 12D capable of managing the automatic distribution of incomingcalls received via IP network 16 and a web collaboration ACD server 12Ecapable of managing the distribution of web collaboration sessions.

[0017] Contact center 10 may further comprise a plurality of multimediaagent-workstations 18, each coupled to QA system 20 and to contactservers 12. The term multimedia agent-workstation refers to aworkstation capable of handling at least one of the following: atelephone call received from voice ACD 12A, a VoIP call received fromVoIP ACD 12D, e-mail received from EMS 12B, a chat received from chatACD 12C, and a web collaboration session received from web collaborationACD 12E.

[0018] Additionally, contact center 10 may include a digital storageapparatus 26 having one or more storage media and adapted to storedigitally formatted video and audio input. Storage apparatus 26 mayreceive the video and audio data from QA system 20. Non-limitingexamples of storage media may be a hard disk, a digital audio tape (DAT)and an advanced intelligent tape (AIT).

[0019] Contact center 10 may also include at least one supervisorworkstation 28. Supervisor workstation 28 may be coupled to QA system20, either by direct connection or via a computer network 22, such as alocal area network (LAN). Each workstation may typically comprise acomputer, a display, speakers, a keyboard and a printer (not shown), andmay serve as a reporting and input retrieval apparatus. QA system 20 maybe adapted to provide audio and video data to supervisor workstations 28either in real-time or in a playback mode where audio, screen data, andother data may be monitored separately or simultaneously.

[0020] Reference is additionally made to FIG. 2, which is a simplifiedblock diagram illustration of multimedia quality-assurance system 20 ofFIG. 1, according to some embodiments of the present invention. Some ofthe components of system 20 have been previously described, inconnection to a telephone call quality assurance system, in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/503,479, filed Feb. 14, 2000, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0021] QA system 20 may comprise a plurality of various recordingservers 30 adapted to receive audio or video data and to record thedata. Non-limiting examples of recording servers may include a voicelogger 30A adapted to receive and record telephone call audio from voiceACD 12A and a VoIP logger 30D adapted to receive and record digitalaudio of VoIP call from VoIP ACD 12D.

[0022] Additional examples of recording servers include e-mail logger30B adapted to receive an e-mail session from e-mail ACD 12B and tostore it, chat logger 30C and web collaboration logger 30E. System 20may further comprise a screen logger 30F adapted to receive video screendata from workstations 18 and to record the captured screen data.

[0023] It should be noted that at least one of recording servers 30might be integrated in another recording server. For example, e-maillogger 30B and chat logger 30C may be integrated in screen logger 30F.Alternatively, all recording servers 30 may be integrated.

[0024] QA system 20 may further comprise a sniffing unit 31 coupled toVoIP logger 30D, to e-mail logger 30B and chat logger 30C and to webcollaboration logger 30E. Sniffng unit 31 is adapted to intercept VoIP,e-mails and chats by tapping computer network 22 and to determine whichdata packets have been transferred between a specific agent and a thirdparty.

[0025] QA system 20 may further comprise an event manager 32 coupled torecording servers 30 and a QA system storage 34 coupled to event manager32. Storage 34 may comprise a call database 36, a schedule database 38,a forms database 40, and an administration database 42. Event manager 32may be adapted to receive a CTI datum associated with an interactionbetween an agent and a party from any of contact servers 12 and todetermine whether the interaction is to be recorded.

[0026] For example, event manager 32 may be adapted to receive anotification from voice ACD 12A of a telephone call that has been routedto workstation 18 and may log information regarding the call in calldatabase 36. Event manager 32 may then command voice logger 30A andscreen logger 30F to begin recording audio and screen data of atelephone call for which an event notification has been received.

[0027] In another example, event manager 32 may be adapted to receivenotification from EMS 12B of e-mail that have been routed to workstation18 and may log the information regarding the call in call database 36.Event manager 32 may then command e-mail logger 30B and screen logger30F to begin recording the text and screen data of e-mail for which anevent notification has been received. In a similar manner, in case ofchat sessions, VoIP calls and web collaboration, event manger mayreceive a notification from the suitable contact server 12 and may logthe information in call database 36.

[0028] Event manger 32 may be further adapted to receive screen datacaptured from a display (not shown) of workstation 18 before, during orafter a call is received at workstation 18, using conventional screendata capture means. The term “call” refers to any of telephone call,e-mail, VoIP call, chat and web collaboration.

[0029] Event manager 32 may provide audio and screen data associatedwith a particular call as soon as it is switched to supervisorworkstation 28 for real-time monitoring. Alternatively, event manager 32may receive playback requests from supervisor workstations 28, inresponse to which event manager 32 may retrieve the requested audioand/or screen data from storage apparatus 26 and may provide the data tosupervisor workstation 28. Event manager may further comprise ascheduler 44 coupled to event manager 32 and to QA system storage 34 andan evaluator 46 coupled to recording servers 30 and to storage 34.

[0030] Evaluator 46 may enable an operator to produce complex evaluatingreports, which may improve the ability to evaluate a specific agent inrelation to a specific contact and in general. For example, QA system 20may enable to produce a report that integrates the results of customersurveys and supervisor evaluation reports and enables to compare theevaluation of the customer and the supervisor regarding the quality ofan agent.

[0031] Non-limiting examples of data fields stored in QA system 20 forproducing evaluation reports include a customer response regarding aspecific ticket, a customer response regarding a specific agent and acustomer response regarding the quality of service for a given product.Additional non-limiting examples include general customer response,customer response after a product purchase and customer response afterdelivery of product.

[0032] Another example of an integrated report may be a market-averagesreport for a specific market segment. Processing customer responsesdirecting to various companies relating to that market segment mayproduce a market-averages report.

[0033] QA system 20 may be coupled to a customer relationship management(CRM) system (not shown) in synchronization. An application, which maybe installed in the CRM system, may provide on-line playbackcapabilities to an existing CRM system such as SIEBEL Call Centerapplications of Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., USA, thusmaking an enhanced CRM. The integration between QA system 20 and theenhanced CRM system may enable an operator to retrieve all contacts madein the past with a specific customer and replay the contacts (e.g.voice, chat e-mail and VoIP) recording while conducting a presentinteraction with that customer. System 20 may also provide an operatorhandling the enhanced CRM system more information regarding the contactswith the customer. Non-limiting examples of such information may includethe score given by the supervisor to the agent handling the contact, therelative service level of a contact, the service level of a specificcontact relative to the average score of the agent and the like.

[0034] Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which is a flow chart diagram ofthe operation of QA system 20, during real time events, according tosome embodiments of the present invention. QA 20 may receivenotification of a real time event from any of contact servers 12directly or via CTI links.

[0035] Scheduler 44 may provide event manager 32 scheduling informationstored in schedule database 38. When scheduler 44 notifies event manager32 that a specific agent contact has to be recorded, system 20 may waitfor a real time event notification indicating that such a specificcontact is about to occur.

[0036] When a notification from the contact server handling the routingof the contact to the agent is received (step 100), event manger 32 maysend a recording command to at least one of the recording servers 30(step 110).

[0037] Event manager 32 may create a new call record and may log it in“call” database 36 (step 120). The call record may include the callingparty's telephone number, the specific ticket of the incoming e-mail,the calling party IP address, the locations of the interactionrecordings in storage 26, the time the interaction took place, and theduration of the interaction.

[0038] When the contact between the agent and the third party is over,event manager 32 may receive notification from the suitable contactserver 12 indicating that the contact has ended (step 130). Eventmanager 32, then, may wait for a “call wrap-up” time and may send a“stop recording” command to the recording servers 12 (step 140). Thecall wrap-up time is a predefined time interval having values of severalseconds to several minutes. The purpose of adding the call wrap-up timemay be for example to continue recording the agent interaction with thecomputer after the call is ended. The call wrap-up time may havedifferent values for different types of contacts. Event manager 32 mayadd additional data to the call record logged in “call” database 36,such as the time the contact has been ended, the duration of the contactand the like (step 150).

[0039] Reference is now made to FIG. 4, which is a flow chart diagram ofthe operation of QA system 20, during non-real time events, according tosome embodiments of the present invention. The embodiments described inFIG. 4 are directed, for example, to a quality assurance method based oncall detail record (CDR). The CDR reports are being sent from thecontact server after an event has been ended. In these embodiments,system 20 may record specific agents according to a scheduling algorithmstored in schedule database 36.

[0040] When scheduler 44 notifies event manager 32 that a specific agentcontact has to be recorded, event manager 32 may send a recordingcommand to at least one of the recording servers (step 200). Duringrecording, event manager may wait for a predefined time interval for anotification from the suitable contact server 12 indicating that acontact handled by the specific agent has been ended (step 210). If sucha message is received before the predefined time interval, then eventmanager 32 may wait for a “call wrap-up” time and may send a “stoprecording” command to at least one of the recording servers 30 (step220). The time of ending the contact is received directly with themessage, however, the actual time of starting the contact may bedetermined by event manager 32 from the message sent at the end of thecontact (step 230). Event manager, then, may create a new call recordand may log it in “call” database 36, specifying the start and end timeof the contact (step 240).

[0041] Event manager 32 may then send a deletion command to therecording server in order to delete unwanted recorded data. Theunnecessary recorded data, in these embodiments, may be data recordedbetween the recording “start” time and the time that the contactactually started (step 250). The data that may remain stored inrecording servers 30 and/or provided to storage 26 is the recorded dataof the contact.

[0042] As described previously, during recording, event manager may waitfor a predefined time interval for a notification from the suitablecontact server 12 indicating that a contact handled by the specificagent has been ended (step 210). If such a message is not receivedbefore the predefined time interval, then event manager 32 may send a“stop recording” command to the suitable recording server 30 (step 260).Next, event manager 32 may send the recording server 30 a “delete”command indicating that all the recorded data between the start time ofthe specific recording session and the stop time of that recordingsession is to be deleted (step 270).

[0043] Reference is now made to FIG. 5, which is a flow chart diagram ofthe operation of QA system 20 using total wiring according to someembodiments of the present invention. In these embodiments, eventmanager 32 may command the recording servers 30 to record all thecontacts between a predefined number of agents and a third party for apredefined period of time (step 300). Once the post-contact messages arereceived from the various contact servers 12, event manager 32 maydetermine the start time and stop time of the contact and may commandrecording server 30 to delete unnecessary recorded data.

[0044] Event manager 32 may continuously receive from contact servers 12post-contact messages such as CDR (step 310). At predefined time (e.g.once a day), event manager 32 may review all the recorded data and mayselect the contacts that match a scheduler recording criteria (step320). For each of the selected contacts, event manager 32 may add a“call wrap-up” time parameter to the actual time the contact has beenended (step 330). Next, for each contact, event manager 32 may create anew contact record in “call” database 36 (step 340). Then, event manager32 may send all the recording servers 30 a “delete” command of all theunnecessary recorded data (step 350).

[0045] Reference is now made to FIG. 6, which is a flow chart diagram ofthe operation of QA system 20, according to some embodiments of thepresent invention.

[0046] In these embodiments, event manager 32 may receive a real-timeevent notification of specific contacts from sniffing unit 31. Sniffingunit 31 is adapted to intercept VoIP, e-mails and chats by tappingcomputer network 22 and to determine which data packets have beentransferred between a specific agent and a third party.

[0047] When scheduler 44 notifies event manager 32 that a specific agentcontact has to be recorded, system 20 may wait for a real time eventnotification indicating that such a specific contact is about to occur.When a notification from sniffing unit 31 is received (step 400), eventmanager 46 may send a recording command to at least one of the recordingservers (step 410). Alternatively that notification may be received viaa CTI link.

[0048] Event manager may create a new call record in “call” database 36(step 420). The call record may include all the details of the contactthat are provided by sniffing unit 31, including the start time. The endtime of the contact may be added to the call record when the contactends.

[0049] When the contact between the agent and the third party is over,event manager may receive notification from sniffing unit 31 or the CTIlink indicating that the contact has been ended (step 430). Eventmanager, then, may wait for a “call wrap-up” time and may send a “stoprecording” command to the recording servers 12 (step 440).

[0050] Reference is now made to FIG. 7, which is a flow chart diagram ofthe operation of QA system 20 using API according to some embodiments ofthe present invention. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, event manager 32 may receive a real time event notificationof specific contacts from an application program interface (API) such asan e-mail application interface and a CTI application interface.

[0051] When a notification from the API is received (step 500), eventmanager 32 may send a recording command to at least one of recordingservers 12 (step 510). The message received from the API may includeinformation about the type of the contact and the specific agenthandling the contact.

[0052] Event manager may create a new call record in “call” database 36(step 520). The call record may include all the details of the contactthat are provided by the API, including the start time and the end timeof the contact When the contact between the agent and the third party isover, event manager 32 may receive notification from the API indicatingthat the contact has been ended (step 530). Event manager, then, maywait for a “call wrap-up time” and may send a “stop recording command tothe recording servers 12 (step 540).

[0053] While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A multimedia quality monitoring systemcomprising: an event manager adapted to receive a notificationassociated with a communication between a first person and a secondperson, said communication taking place via a network coupled to atleast one contact server; an audio recording server coupled to saidevent manager, said audio recording server adapted to record from atelephony contact server audio data associated with said communication;and at least one computer-data recording server coupled to said eventmanager, said computer-data recording server adapted to record from acomputer-communication contact server digital data associated with saidcommunication.
 2. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein saidcomputer-communication contact server is selected from the groupincluding a voice over Internet protocol automatic call distributionserver, a chat automatic call distribution server, a web collaborationautomatic call distribution server and an e-mail management systemserver.
 3. The monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising a screenrecording server adapted to record at least a portion of an interactionof said first person with a computer at least during said communication.4. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said notification isreceived from a computer telephony integration server.
 5. The monitoringsystem of claim 1 further comprises a scheduler coupled to said eventmanager, and wherein said notification is received from said scheduler.6. The monitoring system of claim 1 further comprises a sniffing unitcoupled to said event manager and to said at least one recording server,and wherein said notification is received from said sniffing unit. 7.The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said notification is receivedfrom an application program interface.
 8. The monitoring system of claim1 further comprises an evaluator adapted to provide a report relating toany of said data.
 9. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein saidmonitoring system is coupled to a customer relationship managementsystem and is adapted to provide said customer relationship managementsystem with an ability to retrieve playback of said digital dataassociated with said communication in real-time.
 10. A methodcomprising: receiving a notification associated with a communicationbetween a first person and a second person, said communication takingplace via a network coupled to at least one contact server; recordingfrom a telephony contact server audio data associated with saidcommunication; and recording from a computer-communication contactserver digital data associated with said communication.
 11. The methodof claim 10 wherein said computer-communication server is selected fromthe group including a voice over Internet protocol automatic calldistribution server, a chat automatic call distribution server, a webcollaboration automatic call distribution server and an e-mailmanagement system server.
 12. The method of claim 10 further comprisingrecording at least a portion of an interaction of said first person witha computer during said communication while recording generallysynchronously data associated with said communication.